Towers of Silence
Preserved but no longer current.
The small towers on which the Parsees and Zoroastnans place their dead to be consumed by birds of prey. The bones are picked clean in the course of a day, and are then thrown into a receptacle and covered with charcoal.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Towers of Silence” mean?
The small towers on which the Parsees and Zoroastnans place their dead to be consumed by birds of prey. The bones are picked clean in the course of a day, and are then thrown into a receptacle and covered with charcoal.
Is “Towers of Silence” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.